


Nose Nuzzle Champs 201X

by wordbending



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Fluff, Humor, Multi, Other, Polyamory, Queerplatonic Relationships, just plain ol' cuteness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-28 17:31:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17791706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordbending/pseuds/wordbending
Summary: Asriel has one of those expressions where he has anidea. You know that expression. Youdreadthat expression.And, since he just barged into your room with a trophy marked "Nose Nuzzle Champs '98!", it can't possibly be forgoodreasons.





	Nose Nuzzle Champs 201X

**Author's Note:**

> Based on [this fanart](https://twitter.com/0606_nmkn/status/1094570513689538560) by Japanese artist [nmkn](https://twitter.com/0606_nmkn)! Reposted with permission!

There was a grunt outside your room - _your_ room. It was still so strange to think of it as your room, and not just Asriel’s room. Your home, and not just Asriel’s home, Toriel’s home, Asgore’s home. This place… this home… it was _yours._ You belonged here, no matter how much part of you still wanted to deny it. These people cared for you, they loved you, no matter how much you still didn’t want to believe it.

“Chara!” says Asriel from the other side of the door. “Open up!”

You roll your eyes. “Just a second.”

Thankful you’re dressed and not in your pajamas, you go to the door and open it. You don’t see Asriel. Instead, what you see is…

A trophy? A giant golden trophy, that dwarfs Asriel’s entire body. You can see his arms wrapped around it, but he’s struggling to carry it. His knees are wobbling.

You look at the front of the trophy. It has “Number 1 Nose Nuzzle Champs ‘98!” engraved on it.

“What.”

Asriel takes deep breaths.

“Nose… nuzzling… champions!!!” he manages to say.

You cross your arms. “I can read. Why are you showing me this?”

With a huff, he puts down the trophy, barely missing your big toe. You back away to spare your feet from being crushed.

You take one look at the look in Asriel’s eyes and back away further. He has that expression, that sparkle in his big, innocent eyes, that says that he has _an idea,_ and that he won’t back away from that idea no matter what. You know that expression. You _dread_ that expression.

In an instant, Asriel crosses the space between you both and takes his paws in your hands. With a blissful, almost oblivious, expression on his face, he says “I know we can win the championship!”

“W-what?” you say, feeling your cheeks grow very warm.

Asriel takes your hands and spins around you, walking in a circle. You follow him, feeling dizzy, as he “dances” with you. All the fur on his face somehow doesn’t hide that he’s blushing furiously, but he’s in one of those _moods,_ one that doesn’t stop him despite any embarrassment he rightfully should be feeling.

“The Nose Nuzzle Championship!” he says. “Ah, it’s the best! All the couples from all across the Underground gather to show how long they can nuzzle noses for and who is the best nose nuzzler…”

You want to _pinch_ your nose, and you would if your hands weren’t occupied. This is the most ridiculous thing he’s ever asked you for, which is saying quite a lot.

“What if you don’t have a nose?”

Asriel stops spinning around you. “Huh?”

“I mean, what if you lack a nose? Then what do you do?”

“Why are you asking?” he says, sounding just the slightest bit annoyed. “Don’t try to tell me _you_ don’t have a nose.”

“Of course I have a nose,” you say, “but that’s…”

Instantly, Asriel reaches out and slides a paw over your nose, clenching the paw into a fist.

“Now you don’t.”

You screech, in spite of knowing that this is very, very immature of you. “H-hey! That’s not… give that back!”

Asriel holds his paw above his head, standing on his tiptoes. “Not until you agree to be in the Nose Nuzzling Championship with me!”

“ _Never! Give me my nose back!”_

You crouch down and then tackle him to the ground. With an “oof,” Asriel lands on his back and starts laughing up a storm, giggling as he waves his paw around and tries to keep your “nose” out of your reach. Your locket hangs from your neck, jangling against his.

You crawl on top of him, clambering over him, until you finally reach your “nose” and take it from his fist, putting it right back on your face where it belongs.

You belatedly realize that you’re chest-to-chest with him, your face inches from his, your _nose_ inches from his.

And he’s smiling mischievously at you, in spite of how much he’s blushing.

“Well, if you have your nose back, I can do… _this!”_

And he sits up just enough to bonk his snout against your nose. It feels… surprisingly less fluffy than you expect. It’s more like the nose of one of those cats you’d see around your neighborhood, the cats that were always much friendlier to you than any of the humans - hard and fleshy, a little wet, whisker-like fur tickling your skin.

He shuts his eyes, but before he can start nuzzling your nose, you pull away, your cheeks warm enough to fry an egg on.

“No,” you say.

“Aww,” says Asriel. “Why not, Chara?”

“Why do you want to be Nose Nuzzle Champs anyway?” you say, not bothering to move off of him, even though you can’t look him in the eyes. “It’s not like we’re a couple yet.”

Out of the corner of your eye, Asriel’s blush deepens. “I-I… I know that!” Then realization sets in on his face and he raises his brows. “Wait, _yet?”_

You can only imagine how red your face is now. “I mean, uh, uh, I mean… that’s not… _shit._ ”

Asriel looks just as confused. You swear you feel _something_ beating in his chest, even though he doesn’t have a heart. You can almost hear the _thump, thump…_ but it might just be your own heart.

“Do you… _want_ to be a couple, Chara?”

You can practically see steam shooting out your ears.

You don’t know whether to say “of course not!” or “of course i do!”, so instead, you say, “Of course I not!”

“What?”

You decide the best way out of this is to change the subject as soon as possible. “Uh, I changed my mind! Let’s be Nose Nuzzle Champs, Asriel!”

Asriel laughs. Knowing him, he’s probably just as happy for the change of subject as you are.

“OK! Then let’s practice, Chara.”

* * *

Your heart is pounding in your chest as Asriel very slowly, agonizingly slowly, moves his nose towards yours. He’s focusing hard, although thankfully not so hard that he’s doing that thing where he sticks his tongue out.

But you’re getting sick of waiting, so you decide to just get it over with already. You boop your nose against his, so that your bony, rubbery cartilage is touching his slightly wet, slightly furry snout. He blinks rapidly.

“O-OK,” he says, taking a breath. You take a breath too. “Now we just… nuzzle our noses.”

You wait for him to be the first to do it. You’re certainly not going to be.

But he doesn’t move.

“Well?” you say. “Just do it already…”

He squeezes his eyes shut and starts shaking his head back and forth, rapidly rubbing his nose against yours. It… tickles. You let out a giggle and pull away, blushing all the way to your ears.

“Chara, you have to stay still!” he complains.

“It feels funny,” you admit, wiggling your nose. “It’s like rubbing my nose with an oversized kitten.”

“What’s a kitten?”

“A tiny, ferocious animal who hates water and people and would rather sleep all day than deal with either.”

“So, like you?” he says, blatantly proud of himself for his stunning wit.

“I am not tiny,” you say instantly, but you smile. “But, yes, not unlike me.”

You lean forward again, and Asriel gets the message and leans forward too, until your noses are once again touching. He closes his eyes, and you close yours.

“OK, I’ll try this time,” you say. More gently than Asriel, closer to what you imagine as “nuzzling,” you rub your nose against his. Asriel giggles too, but he stays surprisingly still, especially for him - you can imagine his tail wagging behind him though, which is an adorable image.

“This feels nice,” Asriel says softly. He reaches out his paws for your hands, and you clasp your hands together, fingers intertwining. You feel a steady warmth from his paws, warmer than what you’re familiar with from holding his paws.

“Yes,” you agree. It does feel nice, doing this. “It does.”

* * *

An hour later, you’re still nuzzling noses with Asriel, your hands clasped together. It’s surprisingly exhausting to focus on doing one task for a full hour, but what’s just as surprising it’s that it’s not… boring. There’s something very… intimate about nuzzling noses with your “best friend forever.” Something secretive, something you don’t want anyone to know about.

It still feels weird though. His nose definitely isn’t like a human’s nose, not that you’ve ever done this with a human. And being so close to Asriel, your senses are overwhelmed with, well, Asriel. Your eyes can see the pink skin under his strands of fur, your nose can smell Asriel’s favorite shampoo from his bath earlier in the day and leftover traces of mud and dirt from him having played in the garden, and your sense of touch is dominated by the feeling of Asriel’s fur brushing against your skin.

But there’s also something… strange about Asriel. Something that makes him distinctly a monster, and not just a weird anthropomorphic goat boy. You don’t actually feel his pulse in your fingers, although you feel your own pulse beating steadily. He doesn’t smell of sweat. When he loses focus, his body glows just slightly, which must be his magic flowing out of him.

It all adds up to be… unique. It’s like seeing a laser, a real one, or maybe even like the Aurora Borealis - impossible to really describe, something that only _you_ understand.

You love him, and you love that about him, his monsterness. You… wait. Your thoughts screech to a halt.

You _love_ him.

And, God, right now, you want to kiss him. You want to say screw this nose nuzzling nonsense and just wrap your arms around him and kiss his furry lips. You want to laugh when he pulls away and bleats, embarrassed, or maybe for him to even kiss you _back_ and for you to melt into each other’s arms, like two lovers over the cauldron of hell.

So you do kiss him. You wrap your arms around his neck and roughly press your lips up against his snout, against his mouth, feeling the fur tickle your cheeks. For a moment, he’s stunned - you feel him freeze up in your arms. But then, instead of backing away from the kiss, he leans gently into it, kissing you back.

Suddenly, though, you feel his fur under your nose and your nose scrunches up. Damn it, you think. Not now!

But there’s nothing you can do but push him away and quickly cover your nose with your sleeve. You stare wearily at the snot in your sleeve, both disgusted by it and irrationally annoyed with it.

“Ugh,” you say, sniffling. “Sorry.”

“That was gross,” says Asriel, laughing. You can see how deeply he’s blushing.

“The kiss or the sneeze?” you say, smiling.

He waves his paws wildly. “T-the sneeze! The sneeze!”

You smile wider. “You _liked_ the kiss?”

Asriel balls his paws into fists and all but shouts, “Stop teasing me!”

You laugh. “Sorry, sorry. I can’t help it. You’re just so fun to tease.”

Asriel pulls on his ears, pulling them in front of his face to hide his blush. “Ugh! Why did you k-kiss me anyway?”

You have no idea how to answer that question, even though you’ve known the answer almost since the moment you fell into the Underground. It’s because you love him. You could never _admit that_ to him, though.

“I have my reasons,” you say, shrugging. “Anyway, we did a good job, didn’t we? We lasted a whole hour.”

Asriel sighs. “Yeah. We did.” He smiles shyly, letting go of his ears. “We’ll definitely win the championships like that.”

The championships, you think. Oh, right. That’s what this whole thing was about. The most public display of affection monsterkind could have ever devised - a contest.

You… don’t really want to display your affection for Asriel in public. Holding hands is one thing, but you don’t really want to nuzzle his nose for an hour in front of literally every living monster, and you _definitely_ don’t want to do that in front of his parents.

“About that…” you say, reaching up and scratching your neck.

“Huh?” says Asriel, and ugh, you hate how sweet and innocent he is sometimes.

“I changed my mind again,” you say flatly. “I don’t want to do it anymore.”

“Charaaaaaa!” he whines, obnoxiously. “No fair! Why not?!”

“Ah, ah, ah,” you say. “You’ve been pushy about this all day. What have I said about being pushy?”

“Don’t be?”

You smile. “That’s right. But actually, you know what? I’ll make it up to you.”

Asriel’s eyes widen with obvious interest. “How?”

“When we’re grown up, we’ll win all the Nose Nuzzling Championships you want. That’s a promise.”

Of course, he doesn’t know you have no plans to “grow up” in the first place. You have … machinations. You’re going to see them through.

“A real promise?” he says.

Damn. You can’t lie about a _real_ promise, but… you can hardly tell him your plans yet.

You try to think of a way to wiggle out of it, but you’re stumped. No choice, then.

“Yes,” you say, smiling widely and bowing your forehead in front of his. “A real promise.”

He seems happy, you think, as he eagely bows his forehead down and presses it against yours. The monster’s strange symbol for a promise.

“Don’t forget!” he says.

“I won’t.”

* * *

Many, many, _many_ years later, when you and Asriel have somehow grown up despite the universe’s many attempts to prevent that, you and Asriel are laying in bed, your arms wrapped around Asriel’s midsection. You awake blearily and start the morning as you always do: by leaning over him and kissing his neck.

“Remember when we were kids?” he says abruptly.

“Of course,” you say. “How could I forget?”

“Well, if I remember correctly,” he says, ever-so-casually, and without even looking your direction, “you made a promise to me back then.”

“Mmmhmm?” you say.

“A promise to be in the Nose Nuzzling Championships with me,” he says, and your brain immediately does a somersault. “I think you still owe me that.”

“No, no, absolutely not, no,” you say, once your brain is working again.

“You promised!”

“I don’t care! I was a dumb kid! I…”

“Well, you know what,” he says, over your protests, “if you won’t be Nose Nuzzling Champs with me, then I guess we’ll have to have _our own_ Nose Nuzzling Championship.” And he finally turns to you, an evil glint in his eye. “Right here, right now!”

You scream and clamber out of bed. Asriel throws the blankets off himself and starts chasing after you, wearing nothing but his novelty heart-print boxer shorts.

You bolt out of the room, your screams becoming laughter, right past Frisk, who is in their pajamas and already getting an incredibly unhealthy-looking sugary breakfast. You immediately come to a halt, kiss Frisk on the forehead, and then continue running for dear life.

“We are the champions!” Asriel shouts as he barges into the living room. “We are the champions! Of the world!”

“ _Never!”_ you scream.

But he’s faster than you, in spite of his massive size, and it only takes him a second to close the distance between you and start rubbing his nose against yours in spite of your half-hearted efforts to push him away.

As you both become a giggling, laughing pile on the floor, you think of how much you love him. How happy moments like this make you to be alive. How grateful you are, despite everything, for him.

And you kiss him. He falls silent and kisses you back.

Frisk walks up to you both, smiling softly rather than teasing you to “get a room” in sign language, and you take that as a sign.

“Want to join us?” you say.

Frisk nods.

You pull them in, kissing them, and Asriel kisses them, and they kiss you both.

Yes, you think. Life _is_ good.


End file.
